Opinion: Why KotOR 3 can save Star Wars games

The year was 2003, I was a young boy probably around the age of 9. I had seen the original trilogy of Star Wars movies countless times and was obsessed with Yoda and Luke Skywalker. I wanted to be a guardian of peace, I wanted to be a defender of the weak, I wanted to BE a Jedi.

Even at that young of an age I knew what a disaster The Phantom Menace had been and The Clone Wars did little to fix the issues of how badly the universe had been treated, enter Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I remember playing a demo in Best Buy (back when they were a thing) and insisted to my parents that I needed that game and 15 years later I still own my original copy. Knights did something for a generation of Star Wars fans that the current market of games simply cannot do, it immersed a bunch of “tweeners” who were too old to really be truly invested in the Original Trilogy like our parents before us but old enough to realize there wasn’t much reason to care about the prequel movies beyond the fact that we got to see Yoda kick some tail with a saber.

In the modern era of video gaming where countless games launch with microtransactions and networking problems there is a MASSIVE amount of evidence that Single Player games still have a place in today’s world regardless of what critics say, if you don’t believe me ask CD Projekt Red if they regret making the Witcher 3.

After EA’s acquisition of the Star Wars license and the fact that they owned Bioware I had hoped we would see an announcement, it seemed like the perfect time for Disney to reinsert Revan’s tale into canon, and yet I’m still waiting.

In the interim, Star Wars mobile games have launched, Star Wars Battlefront released and people were disappointed with the glorified demo they got for 60 bucks then in typical EA fashion they made a sequel that for all intents and purposes IS a better game but they dropped the ball because they tried to squeeze more hard earned cash from the consumers with pay-to-win microtransactions that essentially ruined the game.

Now with their tail tucked firmly between their legs, EA can save this ship and right the wrongs if they put their resources behind a full-fledged sequel to Knights 2 which was also phenomenal yet criminally underrated.

The benefit they have here are really 2 things, the first one is aforementioned fan base of people who really connected with Star Wars by visiting Tatooine 3,000 years before Luke was there and who defeated Darth Malak on the Star Forge after a duel almost as monumental as Obi-wan vs. Anakin. The second one being is that Bioware not only has stayed in that time period with The Old Republic MMO but they’re in desperate need of a hit after Mass Effect Andromeda sputtered and died before it even had a chance to complete its first lap around the track.

Simply put, Knights 3 could give us a Star Wars Story with a base, with substance, and with meaning that really doesn’t have to affect what Disney is attempting to do with their new trilogy. It reintroduces a character into official canon that countless people have connected with, it can excite a disenfranchised fan base, and save the Star Wars series of video games if done correctly. One can only hope that somewhere deep inside EA’s offices someone, somewhere is pitching this idea heavily and pleading with their bosses to take a risk and give the fans what they’ve asked for, for almost 2 decades now.

Hi! I am Justin Runyon - pro essay writer from buy essays online service that only begin my career and wants to write about my passion- videogames as much as I can, to improve my writing skills!